The past few years have been a mental and physical battle for Bellator’s Brandon Girtz. Two ACL reconstructions in less than 30 months will do that to a fighter.

The hard times are finally over, he believes, and Girtz (14-5 MMA, 6-3 BMMA) is hoping to start a new chapter of health, happiness and fighting success when he takes on Fernando Gonzalez (25-14 MMA, 5-1 BMMA) next month at Bellator 174.

“It’s been a tough couple years riddled with injuries,” Girtz told MMAjunkie. “I want to use the word ‘unlucky,’ but things happen for a reason. I’ve had two ACL surgeries in the last two-and-a-half years. Those will take some time off you. …

“I don’t think I’m injury prone (as some have called me), just some bad stuff happened and I’ve been unlucky. Once I get on a roll, we saw what happened when I beat Melvin (Guillard) and I knocked out Derek (Campos). Once my confidence starts going, I’m going to be a very hard man to deal with. If I can stay healthy for longer than a year, things are going to be looking great for me.”

Bellator 174 takes place March 3 at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla. The welterweight bout between Girtz and Gonzalez co-headlines the Spike-televised main card following prelims on MMAjunkie.

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Knee injuries aren’t uncommon in contact sports, especially MMA where there are numerous disciplines that must be practiced. Rarely do fighters go an entire career without going under the knife at least once, but for Girtz he’s had to endure two surgeries on his right knee during a short stretch. As a result, he’s competed just four times over the past three years.

Girtz said his first knee injury sustained in late 2014 was something he was able to recover from with relative ease. The second, which came after a 57-second knockout of Campos at Bellator 146 in November 2015, was much more difficult to endure. Not just from a physical perspective, but mentally.

“It’s not always the physical part, it’s the mental part,” Girtz said. “You see great athletes who don’t come back from injuries, and it’s not necessarily because of their body, it’s because they mentally couldn’t come back. That’s the biggest hurdle. My first ACL surgery was fairly easy for me. I’ve always been pretty mentally strong and say things happen for a reason. To get through that one was an easy one. The second one: I’m not going to lie, it was probably the first time in my life I started to get doubt. I didn’t know why it was happening.”

After almost exactly a year away, Girtz returned to the Bellator cage in November and lost a unanimous decision to Adam Piccolotti at Bellator 165. Although he was able to last all three rounds against a strong opponent, Girtz said he didn’t perform like his normal self, which was largely due to the mental roadblock inserted by multiple injuries.

In hindsight Girtz is able to admit he may have come back too soon. However, the fact he was able to absorb damage to his surgically repaired leg during the fight served as proof to himself that he’s still capable of being in the cage.

“I didn’t come back completely mentally from it as you could see in my last fight,” Girtz said. “It was something on my head, on my shoulders the whole time. I knew I wasn’t ready, but I was trying to fake it to make it. I wasn’t completely confident in the fight, but after the fight I felt great. I got my leg kicked enough where I think I had the biggest bruise I ever had on my leg, and that told me right there that my knee was doing well.

“I had no ill feeling. It was completely the same. My knee felt the same before the fight and after the fight. That told me that I was healthy. Training camp wasn’t about getting better and winning. It was about being healthy and not trying to injury my knee. You can’t go through a camp just trying to stay healthy. After the fight it told me I’m 100 percent.”

With confidence back on his side, Girtz is ready to return to the form that saw him win five of six fights prior to the setback against Piccolotti. Not only is he making a roughly four-month turnaround, but he accepted the matchup with Gonzalez as a short-notice injury replacement for Andrey Koreshkov and agreed to jump up from his natural weight of 155 pounds to compete at welterweight.

Although Girtz said he has no intention of staying at 170 pounds beyond the upcoming bout, he embraces the challenge of fighting a bigger man.

“It doesn’t matter how this fight goes; 155 is my division,” Girtz said. “There might be another opportunity that seems perfect, but 155 is my natural weight class. That’s where I need to be fighting. I’m definitely not a big, huge 155er that’s jumping up to 170 to make my life easier. That’s not the case. When they offered me this fight I wanted the fight, and I look at is as a great matchup. Fernando is a great fighter with a ton of a heart and tough dude, but he’s not a massively tall fighter. He’s not a wrestler that’s just as good as me that can impose his wrestling. He’s a brawler, and it’s a good matchup for me. I think the difference here is going to be the speed.”